Annalena Groppe is doing her doctorate on the topic of peace education in polarizing conflicts about democracy. The central case study is the pedagogical approach to authoritarian-populist large-scale protests at Hambach Castle. Together with conflict and educational actors, she is conducting action research to investigate how peace education didactics can impart the necessary skills in these conflicts. She is particularly interested in experience-based and power-reflexive approaches to peace education as well as different onto-epistemic notions of peace.

• Peace education
• Conflict transformation at home
• Conflicts about democracy
• Experience-based educational approaches
• Religion, peace and conflict
• Regional focus: Germany
• Action research

Member of the editorial team of the Peace Academy Blog.

2025
Guest on the “Fokus Frieden” podcast

Workshop on peace education approaches at the “Contested Democracy ” symposium hosted by EH Freiburg

“Market of Possibilities: #weitergedenken” at the Mainz State Parliament

2024
Anniversary lecture by the Peace Education Working Group in Munich: “Precisely Because of That!
Peace Education in Polarizing Conflicts Over Democracy”

Keynote “Peace Education Meets Global Learning”at the ELAN Expert Forum “”

Keynote “Peace (Education) Under the Magnifying Glass: The Classroom?” at the Peace Education Conference hosted by the Lower Saxony State Institute for School Quality Development (NLQ)

Teacher Training: “Peace Education in Polarizing Conflicts Over Democracy”

School workshop: “Conflicts Everywhere—Finding Ways Forward Together”

Keynote presentation “Peace Education in, for, and through Transformation” at the consultation process of the Evangelical Church in Germany regarding the revision of the peace memorandum

Coordination of “Future Democracy” – An Oracle of Democracy at the Lautern Democracy Shop (Link to announcement)

2023 “
” Keynote presentation “Peace Education & Conflicts Over Democracy” at the “Streit und Struntz” professional exchange organized by K3B – Competence Center for Municipal Conflict Counseling

Workshop at Global Kids Freizeit: “With Each Other Instead of Against Each Other – Theater Methods”

Workshop “Protest as a Democratic Tool – Conflicts Surrounding Hambach Castle” at the intermunicipal symposium organized by ForumZFD/ProPeace

2022
School workshop “Changeable?! – Me and the Ukraine-Russia Conflict” as part of European Week

2021
JuLeiCa training : “Conflicts Everywhere?!” – Learning and Living Peace Together with Volunteers in the FSJ/BFD

From 2026 participatory development process of the certificate program "Peacebuilding and Conflict Transformation"

Summer semester 2023 Co-Facilitation Seminar: "Global Challenges, Local Struggles, Transnational Solidarities" at the Summer Peacebuilding Institute (SPI) of the Center for Justice and Peacebuilding (CJP) at Eastern Mennonite University (EMU) in Harrisonburg, USA.

Summer semester 2022 Seminar: "Action Research: Peace Education in Polarizing Conflicts over Democracy"

Winter semester 2020/21 and summer semester 2021 Seminar: "Human rights education and peace education"

Essays; Journal Articles

Groppe, Annalena; Hussak, Melanie (2021): Peace Education in Transformation. The Potential of a Diverse Field. In: Wissenschaft & Frieden. pp. 6–9.

Starke, Christof; Groppe, Annalena (2019): Feeling Peace?! How Emotions Have Global-Political Significance in Peace Education. In: Extracurricular Education. No. 2. pp. 40–46.

Groppe, Annalena (2016): Spirituality as Peace Work. The Idea and Practice of Spirituality as a Tool for Peace in a Jewish-Palestinian Community in Israel. In: Journal of Young Religious Studies. Vol. 11.

Books / Edited Volumes

Hussak, Melanie; Groppe, Annalena; Lehner, Daniela; Hinrichs, Karen (2026): The Future of Peace Education—Methods and Approaches in Times of Social Transformation. Barbara Budrich Publishing.

Dany, Charlotte; Groppe, Annalena (2021): Peace and the Pandemic: International Perspectives on Social Polarization and Cohesion in Times of COVID-19. Peace Perspectives—Working Paper Series of the Peace Academy in the Palatinate region No. 1.

Book Chapter

Groppe, Annalena ( 2026, forthcoming) “Action Research in Peace Education” In:The Future of Peace Education, edited by Melanie Hussak, Annalena Groppe, Daniela Lehner, and Karen Hinrichs. Barbara Budrich Publishing.

Groppe, Annalena; Hussak, Melanie; Lehner, Daniela; Hinrichs, Karen (2026, forthcoming) “The Future of Peace Education—Dialogic Resonances” In:The Future of Peace Education, edited by Melanie Hussak, Annalena Groppe, Daniela Lehner, and Karen Hinrichs. Barbara Budrich Publishing.

Groppe, Annalena (2023) “Elicitive Peace Education in Polarizing Conflicts over Democracy: A Relational Perspective Complementing the Prevention of Radicalization.” In: *Radicalization and Collective Violence*, edited by Daniel Beck and Julia Renner. Wiesbaden: Springer VS.

Groppe, Annalena, and Melanie Hussak (2023): “Peace Education Perspectives on Heterogeneity as a Potential for Conflict Management in Landau.” In: Heterogeneity and Diversity in Medium-Sized Cities: The Case of Landau in the Palatinate, edited by Barbara Pusch, Susanne Spieker, and Christopher Horne. pp. 67–83. Wiesbaden: Springer Fachmedien. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-39076-1_4.

Miscellaneous (Blog/Newspaper)

Groppe, Annalena (2023): Moving Peace Education: Learning in Polarizing Conflicts as a Visiting Scholar in the USA. Peace Academy Blog. September 27, 2023.

Groppe, Annalena (2023): Conflicts over Democracy at Hambach Castle—Points of Intersection Between Conflict Mediation and Critical (Peace) Education. In: Streit und Struntz Impulse Text No. 31.

Groppe, Annalena (2022): Conflicts Surrounding Neustadt as a “Place of Democracy”—Municipal Conflict Mediation as a Potential Solution?Peace Academy Blog. November 11, 2022

Groppe, Annalena, Kristina Langeder-Höll, and Birgit Riegler (2021): “Shedding Light on Fractures in Democracy. Annual Conference of the AFK Working Group on Peace Education, Landau/Pfalz, October 11–13, 2021.” In: Wissenschaft & Frieden, No. 4: pp. 55–56.

Groppe, Annalena (2021): Peace Education in Polarizing Conflicts over Democracy. In: Dany, Charlotte; Groppe, Annalena: *Peace Perspectives No. 1: Peace and the Pandemic—International Perspectives on Social Polarization and Cohesion in Times of COVID-19*. pp. 6–15.

Groppe, Annalena (2020): Connected in Quarantine? New Forms of Transpersonal Learning During the COVID-19 Pandemic.Peace Academy Blog. April 25, 2020.

Groppe, Annalena (2019): Unfolding Stories – Transforming Understandings of Development. Many Peaces Magazine. May 29, 2019.